Is it okay to touch a frog, or will we burn its skin? Readers’ nature queries

How to handle a frog: don’t use soap beforehand. Just rinse your hands and leave them slightly moist. Photograph: iStock/Getty

My children were discussing whether you should touch a frog, as it was said that your hands burn its skin. Amy Walsh Barnatra, Co Mayo

Frogs absorb practically everything through their skin. Salts, oils, soil and lotions from our hands can irritate the frog’s skin badly. Don’t use soap before handling a frog. Just rinse your hands and leave them slightly moist.

Eyes on nature: the parasitised caterpillar on Maureen Roche’s window; the dark spots are pupae

I found the strange material in my photograph, which is like wet cotton candy, on my window. The dark spots inside are what appear to be eggs. Maureen Roche New Ross, Co Wexford

It seems to be a caterpillar that has been parasitised by an ichneumon fly, a parasitic wasp. It lays its eggs in the caterpillar; they hatch, feed on it and then become pupae, which are in the white stuff.

Eye on nature: the common carder bees nesting in Elizabeth Brookes’s grass

I allowed my grass to grow over a year, and when it was cut recently I found a bumblebee nest on the ground. Elizabeth Brookes, Annascaul, Co Kerry

It looks like the nest of the common carder bee, a bumblebee that nests on the ground and flies until autumn.

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